City of Fae

My job? My life? I’d needed the story; his story. I’d had another purpose once. Killing wasn’t all I was made for. Something wet cooled on my hand. Blood.

“No, focus on me. Alina. Look at me.” Why was Reign behind bars? Didn’t he have a concert in a few days? Shouldn’t he be schmoozing with London’s elite? “Yes, I see you in there, American Girl.” Where was I? Under … I wasn’t meant to be there. “Come back to me.” I reached for the bars and closed my hand around them. Cool, hard, unyielding. Real. Swallowing the swollen knot in my throat, I lifted my head and faced Reign. Why was he scared of me?

His attention flicked to my right and those butterfly eyes widened. “Warren, don’t!”

An arm hooked around my neck and tugged me backward, clean off my feet, before planting me face-first into the wall. Reign’s shouts blurred beneath the cacophony of pain bouncing around my skull. Blood swelled in my mouth, dribbled over my chin.

“You can’t beat the queen’s control.” Warren’s words were the last I heard before the hungry darkness devoured me.





Chapter Eighteen


“If she’s rabid, I’m putting her down.”

“Would you just trust me, Warren?”

“I did trust you. You told me you had a plan … and I ended up with a dagger between my ribs.”

“Alina is my plan. Quit complaining. You’re alive, the others aren’t. Be grateful.”

“Grateful you had an attack of conscience before you ticked me off your hit list? Faerie help me, I must be as insane as she is to let that, and you, live. You can’t control the queen’s constructs—what are you thinking?”

“Just give her a chance.”

I cracked an eye. Warren paced, crossing my tiny living room in three strides, back and forth, back and forth. He still wore his red and black leathers. The cut in his side gaped as he strode, but there was no evidence of blood. A snug white bandage embraced his wrist, but otherwise he looked as pissed off and prickly as always. And very much alive.

“You know why I have to follow the queen?” Reign said, voice softer than before. He stood by the window, arms crossed, coat buttoned up to his chin. Milky light from the streetlamps outside pooled over his striking features, lending him an unreal glow, as though he wasn’t really there at all. But I was the one who didn’t exist, wasn’t I?

“Yeah, you’re a selfish son of a bitch, literally.”

Reign grumbled a curse, clearly aimed at Warren. “You don’t know what it’s like to have your control ripped out from under you. I can’t escape her. What she does to me … And the hound. That’s not something I get a choice in.”

Warren fell quiet. His boots tapped out a muffled beat against the carpet. Back and forth, back and forth.

“I know it’s not you. I’d have had you executed by now—I’d have done it myself if I didn’t trust you.” He raked his hand through his long hair, drawing it back from his lean, angular face. Lips pulled tight, the scar gave him the appearance of forever half-smiling. “She’s close to escaping. I feel it. You don’t know what that’s like.”

Reign angled himself away from the window, the fall of light casting half his face in shadow. “Alina …” He said my name in that way that sent shivers sprinkling across my skin, half scolding, half growl. He knew I was awake, and listening.

Warren froze. His hard glare pushed into me. “Before you get any ideas, pet, Detective Andrews is tied up down the hall. If you make any move to attack, your detective friend won’t see daybreak.”

A twitch tugged on my consciousness; her. I tried to move and sit up, but my arms were trapped behind me, wrists tied. The two fae glared back at me, faces like stone. I focused on my even breaths, how the air filled my lungs, expanded my chest. Yes, focus on anything but her scratching inside my head.

“It’s possible, the farther away from Under you are, the less control she’ll have over you.” This from Reign. He came toward me, stride smooth, elegant. Crouching within touching distance, he captured my wandering gaze with those marvelous eyes, peering into me as though searching into my soul. What did he see behind my eyes? Was I empty?

“You’re restrained for your own safety, and ours,” he said.

Warren muttered something unsavory but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Reign. Panic slithered beneath my calm exterior. In Under I’d been different. Horrible. Cold. Stripped of free will. And definitely empty. But I didn’t feel like that now. This was my apartment, my home … This was my life.

“Can you hear me?” Reign whispered. He reached out a hand but stopped short, fingers hovering close to my cheek. “Are you still with us, Alina?”

“If she’s not snapped already, she will soon. I’ll bet my good leg she was only designed to last until the end of the week. The queen’s constructs do not last beyond a few days. She’s not yet strong enough to wield them efficiently, even if she’s being fed.”